Anticipation. Goosebumps. Authoritarian. Proud.
These are the four stages of Imran's speech today.
Anticipation
It is well documented that this was the most anticipated speech at this year's UN General Assembly. This speech was 5 weeks in the making specifically in limelight after India's actions in Kashmir. Therefore, the anticipation was massive both domestically and internationally.
I'm willing to admit that I was very skeptical of this speech / event because time and time again we come to our realization that once we pin our hopes onto an event then in most cases it disappoints. Thankfully this was not the case today. The bar to deliver was already very high and Imran to my surprise exceeded even this high expectation today. I will explain this in the later stages.
The point around anticipation that I want to stress upon is the fact repercussions it would have had should Imran had failed to deliver a strong message today. Let's begin by mentioning that India not only has an enormous print media but also social media. To add to this India easily has the largest troll community in the social media world. Had Imran failed today the media in India would have gone berserk over his failure and with such a massive reading populace the word would have spread fairly quickly across internationally about Imran's failure and it would have pushed India's narrative over Kashmir being the correct one. Further, domestically the opponents would have latched onto this failure like a magnet. They would have created a new narrative around this failure to bring down Imran and his government.
So overall to deliver on such a highly anticipated event was not only extraordinary but was quite necessary for Imran himself. And like '92 boy he did lead from the front this time too both literally and figuratively.
Goosebumps
When Imran touched on his first 3 problems to discuss at the assembly being; climate change, money laundering and islamophobia. His presentation of the factors to the Assembly could not have been more spot on. Literally, it might be for the first time the leaders of the Assembly would have had such a direct confrontation and education especially on money laundering and islamophobia.
His address on money laundering would ring serious bells domestically in Pakistan in near future. The opposition is getting weaker and weaker and by pushing the narrative of anti money laundering rules to be as strong and terror financing and drugs money on UN platform will surely make the corrupt leaders back home quiver. If Pakistan government can follow up on this speech and their lawmakers can get lawmakers from big economies crack down on money laundering and within a span of a year can come up with more stringent money laundering rules to help in asset recoveries then by all means he would then have wiped out domestic opponents comfortably. This act or potential law could help Imran sustain PTI government for many a years to come so ideally his legal team should definitely follow up and come up with a blueprint of their actions in here. Imran might have pulled off a master stroke here.
On islamophobia, we all knew what Imran's stance here was as he has been mentioning this for quite some time in both domestic and foreign interviews. However, his choice of words and delivery of his speech today on this topic was phenomenal. He articulately did put it across to the world the sufferings Pakistan has to endure over past couple of decades for a so called war on terror in which Pakistan was not even a direct party. He also put forward his argument on radical islam very articulately and rightly called out the western media for using this terminology and creating a fear of religion in the minds of western people. I personally feel grateful as a muslim that my viewpoint on this subject has been put forward to world leader in the way I would want it to be said. Imran together with Erdogan and Mahatir has already started working on repairing the image of Islam and disassociating the word radical from our religion for which I'm legit thankful to these leaders and I sincerely hope to see a shift in the way western people look at muslims down the years.
Authoritarian
This was Imran's approach today when he talked about Kashmir, RSS and Modi. It was like a teacher giving out a lecture with an attentive classroom at the start of this subject. I already knew, infact everyone knew that he would draw parallels of RSS with Hitler and Mussolini, which he did. I also knew to an extent he would bring up Gujrat of 2012 which he did. Also touching on India's refusal to bilaterally engage Pakistan while attempting to blacklist Pakistan in FATF. All this was done to create the background of the main issue that is Kashmir. Although this was a repetitive part but for those members of audience in hall or in front of screens who were not aware of it are now educated on it.
After creating the backdrop I liked how he explained the situation in Kashmir to audience making it explicitly clear that this act is inhumane and violations of human basic rights. Imran was very clear as how he saw Kashmir and how India were painting the picture of Kashmir which is inaccurate.
Then came the best part of his speech, the authoritative manner of his speech when he started talking about Pakistan's actions and started addressing UN directly with respect to Kashmir. It was evidently clear that his looks became more stern and his voice got more deeper and slightly louder when he started talking about Pakistan's actions should India do any foul play and especially when he was addressing the UN directly. Never would I have thought that any Pakistani leader could confront the UN Assembly itself in this manner and blatantly call them out where they have been wrong, not only that also reminded UN of the history and in a manner letting them know to learn from its own past mistakes. This is when from the teacher he literally became a leader and showed the direction to UN itself. No wonder, this was the most cheered part of his address and fitting high note to end his speech.
Proud
This is literally the feeling that sunk in immediately after he ended his speech and amidst the applause in the backdrop. Today, I can proudly say here we have a leader who is fit enough to lead us onto a progressive direction. A leader not through dynasty, a born leader with instincts and someone who is the voice of the people, Pakistani people. Imran is a Pakistani icon and we are truly blessed to have the right person leading our country. However he is human afterall, if we are to be successful each Pakistani should take it upon himself/herself to deliver in whatever field/industry they are in. Together we can succeed and certainly can succeed with leaders like him.
Thank you Imran.
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